Book reviews

Bo Yibo, Ruogan Zhongda Juece yu Shijian de Huigu (Reminiscences on Several Important Decisions and Events), Volume Two. Zhonggong Zhongyang Dangxiao Chubanshe, 1993. 567–1298 pp.

Li Honglin, Mingyun ‐ Li Honglin zizhuan (Fate ‐ the autobiography of Li Honglin) Taibei: Wentong tushu, 1993.

Jing Sheng, Yi Feng and Xin Ping, Haiwai Huaren Shiuejia Fajia Mijue (The Success Secrects of the Overseas Chinese Businessman) Shenyang: Liaoning People's Publishing House, 1992, 266 pages.

Li Bulou, ed. Chongji yu sikao: Xifang sichao zai Zhongguo (Impact and Reflections: Western Ideologies in China). Wuhan: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1991. 290 + 16 pp.

Jia Pingwa, Feidu [Ruined Capital]. Beijing, Beijing chuban she. 1993, p.518.     

Book reviews

Chen Kuide, ed., Zhongguo dalu dangdai wenhua bianqian (197801989) (Cultural change in Contemporary Mainland China, 1978–1989) Taibei: Guiguan, 1991. 278 + iv pp.

Yizi Chen. China: the Ten Years Reform and Democratic Movement in 1989. Pp. ix, 209, Taipei, Taiwan, Lianjing Press, 1990.

Wu Xiaomei et al., Zhongguo xiandai zuojia yu dongxifang wenhua [Modern Chinese Writers and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou: Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 272 pp. 2.12 Yuan.

Zhao Xueyong, Shen Congwen yu dongxifang wenhua [Shen Congwen and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 226 pp. 1.75 yuan.

Zhongguo Waijiaoguan Huiylilu: Xin Zhongguo Waijiao Fengyun (Memoirs by China's Diplomats: Diplomatic Winds of New China). Edited by Waijiaobu Waijiaoshi Bianjishi (Editorial Office of Diplomatic History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Beijing: Shijie Zhishi chubanshe, 1990. 196 pp. 3.20 yuan

Zhao Wei, Zhao Ziyang zhuan (Biography of Zhao Ziyang)

Ruan Ming: Lishi Zhuanzedian Shangde Hu Yaobang (Hu Yaobang At the Turning Point of History), New Jersey: Global Cultural Publishing House, 1991     

Book reviews

Tibor Szamuely, The Russian Tradition. (Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Conquest.) London: Secker & Warburg, 1974. x+443 pp. £5.00.

Mahmoud Abdel‐Fadil, La Planification des prix en économie socialiste, Essai méthodologique. (Préface de Henri Bartoli.) Série: Sciences Economiques —3. Paris: Publications de l'Université de Paris I—Panthéon‐Sorbonne, 1975. 296 pp.

Jan Adam, Wage, Price and Taxation Policy in Czechoslovakia 1948–1970. Veröffentlichungen des Osteuropa‐Institutes, München. Reihe: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Heft 15. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1974. 231 pp. DM 66.60.

Stephen Osofsky, Soviet Agricultural Policy. Toward the Abolition of Collective Farms. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York: Praeger, 1974. xi+300 pp. $20.00.

Peter J. Potichnyj, Soviet Agricultural Trade Unions, 1917–70. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and London: OUP, 1972. xix+258 pp. £6.25.

Roy A. Medvedev, On Socialist Democracy. (Translated from the Russian and edited by Ellen de Kadt.) London: Macmillan, 1975. xxii+405 +xv pp. £12.00.

The Bolsheviks and the October Revolution. Minutes of the Central Committee of the Russian Social‐Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks) August 1917‐February 1918. Translated from the Russian by Ann Bone. London: Pluto Press, 1974. x+331 pp. £6.60. £2.70 (paperback).

G. I. Tunkin, Theory of International Law. Translated, with an introduction, by William E. Butler. London: Allen & Unwin, 1975. First published in Great Britain in 1974. xxv+497 pp. £8.00.

Bohdan R. Bociurkiw and John W. Strong (eds.), Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan, 1975. xviii+412 pp. £10.00.

R. S. Mathieson, The Soviet Union: An Economic Geography. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1975. xvii+342 pp. £7.50.

Violet Conolly, Siberia Today and Tomorrow. A Study of Economic Resources, Problems and Achievements. London and Glasgow: Collins, 1975. 248 pp. £4–95.

Burton Paulu, Radio and Television Broadcasting in Eastern Europe. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP and London: OUP, 1974. xi+592 pp. £13.25.

John McLeish, Soviet Psychology: History, Theory, Content. London: Methuen, 1975. xii+308 pp. £6.95.

Robin Edmonds, Soviet Foreign Policy 1962–1973: The Paradox of Super Power. London: OUP, 1975. xiv+197 pp. £4.50.

Michael MccGwire, Ken Booth and John McDonnell (eds.), Soviet Naval Policy. Objectives and Constraints. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall Press, 1975. xxvi+663 pp. $32.50. £14.25.

Jerome M. Gilison, The Soviet Image of Utopia. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1975. 192 pp. £4.85.

Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky. London: Wildwood House, 1975. 296 pp. £6.95.     

Population study of 11 Y-chromosomal STR loci in Singapore Chinese

In this study of 212 unrelated Singapore Chinese males, allelic frequencies and gene diversities of 11 Y-chromosome specific STR loci (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385a/b, DYS438 and DYS439) were established. A total of 184 haplotypes were observed in the 212 individuals studied, of which 165 (89.67%) were unique. The most common haplotype was observed in five (2.35%) individuals. The overall haplotype diversity for the 11 Y-STR loci was 99.81%, and the discrimination capacity was 86.79%.     

Impurity profiling of ecstasy tablets seized in Hong Kong by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

In Hong Kong, ecstasy tablets are more commonly known as "Fing Tau Yuen", literally meaning "Shake Head Pills". The tablets contain mainly amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) including 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), methamphetamine (MA) and/or ketamine. Adulterant such as caffeine was also detected in the tablets. This paper reports a study on the impurity profiles of ecstasy tablets from 89 seizures in Hong Kong from 2002 to early 2004. Tablet samples were extracted by diethyl ether under alkaline condition and then analyzed by gas GC-MS. The chromatograms obtained were compared. A total of 19 identified impurities were selected as markers for impurity profiling. They are different precursors, intermediates and by-products. The data matrices were examined by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and then the ecstasy tablets were classified into different groups. Cluster analysis of ecstasy tablets is shown to be capable of providing intelligence on clandestine laboratory networks.     

Constructing reconstruction,territorializing risk: imposing “no-build zones” in post-disaster reconstruction in Tacloban City,Philippines

Analysis of post-disaster reconstruction of urban areas has largely been understood as a function of technocratic and institutionalist paradigms, while critical perspectives have been largely influenced by the analysis of “disaster capitalism.” Common to these paradigms is little analysis of state attempts to deploy power over a population through controlling space in urban areas. This paper examines the strategies of internal territorialization undertaken by the Philippines state in post-Haiyan reconstruction polices. Drawing on data from Tacloban City, I show how bourgeois environmentalist and urban ecological security approaches exclude the urban poor from undertaking reconstruction in coastal communities. Discourses of cleanliness and securing the population of the city have accompanied material practices that enforce state territorialization in the city. These processes of state territorialization exclude those residing in risk prone zones from various forms of aid and relief. This paper concludes by highlighting processes of territorialization that have generated conflict in the city, as poor residents engage in forms of counter-territorialization to assert their space in the city.     

A: Reviews: general

TWO INDIAN TRAVELLERS: EAST AFRICA 1902–1906. Edited by Cynthia Salvadori with Judy Aldrick. Mombasa, Friends of Fort Jesus, 1997. x + 242 pp. K. Shs 900.00 (pb).

THE HERITAGE OF OMAN; A CELEBRATION IN PHOTOGRAPHS. By Pauline Sheldon (with photographs by Ozzie Newcombe). Reading, Garnet Publishing Limited, 1995. 160 pp. £30.00

COMRADES AND ENEMIES. ARAB AND JEWISH WORKERS IN PALESTINE, 1906–1948. By Zachary Lockman. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1996. xvi + 440 pp., one map. £48.00 (cloth), £19.95 (pb).

PAN‐TURKISM. FROM IRREDENTISM TO COOPERATION. By Jacob M. Landau. London, Hurst, 1995. 275 pp. £14.95.

THE HORN OF AFRICA: POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. By Peter Woodward. (International Library of African Studies, 6.) London, I. B. Tauris, 1996. ix + 226 pp., one map. £39.50.

POLITICS AND ISLAM IN CONTEMPORARY SUDAN. By Abdel Salam Sidahmed. Richmond, Curzon Press, 1997. xiv + 249 pp., £40.00

SYRIA AND IRAN: MIDDLE POWERS IN A PENETRATED REGIONAL SYSTEM. By Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Raymond A. Hinnebusch. London and New York, Routledge, 1997. ix + 238 pp., £40.00

WARS, INTERNAL CONFLICTS AND POLITICAL ORDER: A JEWISH DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. (SUNY series in Israel Studies) By Gad Barzilai. New York, SUNY Press, 1996. 301 pp.

OIL AND ISLAM, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES. By Oystein Noreng. (The PETRO Research Series in Petroleum Economics and Politics, Research Council of Norway.) Chichester, John Wiley, 1997. 342 pp.

DER WEG DER ALEVITEN (BEKTASCHITEN): MENSCHENLIEBER, TOLERANZ, FRIEDEN UND FREUNDSCHAFT. By Ali Duran Gülçiçk. Cologne, Ethnographica Anatolica, 1996. 229 pp. 15DM.

THE DECLINE OF EASTERN CHRISTIANITY UNDER ISLAM, FROM JIHAD TO DHIMMITUDE. By Bat Ye'or. London, Associated University Presses, 1996. 522 pp., illustrations.

ISLAM AND HUMAN IDEOLOGY. By Samih Atef El‐Zein. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes by Elsayed M. H. Omran. Preparation and Presentation by Nabih Sidani and Issam Ghandour. London, Kegan Paul International, 1996. xxv + 375 pp. £45.

ISLAMIC LEGAL INTERPRETATION: MUFTIS AND THEIR FATWAS. Edited by M. K. Masud, B. Messick and D. Powers. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1996. 431 pp.

SUHRAWARDI AND THE SCHOOL OF ILLUMINATION. By Mehdi Amin Razavi. (Curzon Sufi Series.) Richmond, Curzon Press, 1997. 192 pp., £35 (hb), £14.99 (pb).

RUZBIHAN BAQLI: MYSTICISM AND THE RHETORIC OF SAINTHOOD IN PERSIAN SUFISM. By Carl W. Ernst. Richmond, Curzon Press, 1996. xxvi + 181 pp., two charts, two appendices, indexes and glossary. £12.99 (pb).

ARABISCHE PRIVATBRIEFE DES 9. BIS 15. JAHRHUNDERTS AUS DER ÖSTERREICHISCHEN NATIONALBIBLIOTHEK IN WIEN. By Werner Diem. (Documenta Arabica Antiqua 2.) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz, 1996. 288 pp. (Textband), 52 plates (Tafelband). 178 DM.

ARABISCHE AMTLICHE BRIEFE DES 10. BIS 16. JAHRHUNDERTS AUS DER ÖSTERREICHISCHEN NATIONALBIBLIOTHEK IN WIEN. By Werner Diem. (Documenta Arabica Antiqua 3.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1996. 411 pp. (Textband), 80 plates (Tafelband). 192 DM.

99 BEEKASHI‐WITZE/BEKTA?? FIKRASI: Deutsch‐Türkisch. By Ali Duran Gülçiçek and Rüdiger Benninghaus. Cologne, Ethnographica Anatolica, 1996. 212 pp.